California is vast. One can’t lump the whole state and ask is it worth it? For instance, I grew up in Los Angeles, which is an ugly, festering pile of crap of a city (you only see the nice parts on tv which is the vast minority). The Bay Area is another world. The Mojave desert, Death Valley, wonderful, amazing places. Yosemite as well. (YOZ MITE as our brilliant potus would say). You could hardly find a nicer place to live than Santa Barbara (damn expensive though). Ventura County not bad, but vacuous culture. The state is like multitudinous countries. Narrow it down and then we can criticize etc.